Jan. 8, 2014

Written by

Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

The candidates

Five names have emerged in the Lions’ search for a new coach. The list: Jim Caldwell

The buzz: The Ravens offensive coordinator and former Colts coach interviewed in Allen Park on Friday. Ken Whisenhunt

The buzz: The Chargers offensive coordinator and former Cardinals coach is expected to meet with Lions general manager Martin Mayhew and others later this week. The Chargers play Sunday in Denver. Gary Kubiak

The buzz: The former Texans coach was in Allen Park on Tuesday meeting with the Lions. Mike Munchak

The buzz: The former Titans coach will interview Friday according to ESPN. Jay Gruden

The buzz: The Bengals offensive coordinator has been mentioned as a candidate, though he does not yet have an interview set up with the Lions.

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Dan Dierdorf couldn’t believe his ears when he heard the Pittsburgh Steelers picked Mike Tomlin to be their head coach six years ago.

Tomlin had never been a head coach at any level, had been a coordinator for just one season, and at 34 was one of the youngest coaches in the NFL.

But when Dierdorf and broadcast partner Greg Gumbel sat down to interview Tomlin early in the 2007 season, his mind changed almost immediately.

“It had to be like three minutes into it, I’m going, ‘Well, I know what Dan Rooney saw now,’ ” Dierdorf said in a conference call Tuesday. “ ‘This is as obvious as the writing on the wall. This guy’s got it.’ ”

As the Lions’ search for a replacement for Jim Schwartz reaches its 10th day, the team has focused primarily on candidates with previous NFL head-coaching experience.

Jim Caldwell, the first known interview last week, coached the Indianapolis Colts in 2009-11 after a long stint as an assistant. Gary Kubiak, who was in Allen Park on Tuesday, was fired by the Houston Texans in December. Mike Munchak, who will interview Friday according to ESPN, was fired over the weekend after three seasons as Tennessee Titans coach. And Ken Whisenhunt, who will meet with general manager Martin Mayhew and others later this week, spent six seasons as Arizona Cardinals coach before joining the San Diego Chargers as offensive coordinator this year.

Mayhew said last week that previous head-coaching experience would be an asset in this search, but was not a requirement.

“I think that would benefit a candidate, but I’m not going to pigeon-hole myself into that,” Mayhew said. “I think that’s something that would benefit somebody that we’re talking to because we think that we’re pretty far along in the process (of building a team) and we don’t want to start over.”

But Dierdorf and fellow CBS analyst Phil Simms said interviewing only targets who’ve been head coaches in the past might cause the Lions to miss out on some worthwhile candidates.

“I think it’s a mistake for any franchise to say the guy we’re going to hire has to have had head-coaching experience, he has to be this, he has to be that,” Dierdorf said. “I think you have to go with the guy that blew your socks off in the interview process. And look at the success a lot of guys have had that weren’t head coaches before. Andy Reid and Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. You get the guy who electrifies you when you interview him, and whether he was a head coach before or not to me is irrelevant.”

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Tomlin has taken the Steelers to two Super Bowls and won one since Pittsburgh hired him after one season running the Minnesota Vikings defense.

Harbaugh, who led the Ravens to the Super Bowl last year, was the long-time special-teams coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles when he was hired in Baltimore in 2008.

And Reid reached the Super Bowl in his sixth season with the Eagles after a long stint as an offensive assistant with the Green Bay Packers.

Tomlin, Harbaugh and Reid hardly traveled unique career paths, though history has shown coaches of all kinds can win in the NFL.

Four of the last five teams to win the Super Bowl — and eight of the last 10 teams to play in the game — have been run by coaches in their first go-round as an NFL head coach, and half of the eight teams left in this year’s playoffs have coaches who’ve never been a head coach before at any level.

“I knew John Harbaugh when he was special-teams coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. When he got hired by the Baltimore Ravens, I swear I went, ‘What are they doing?’ ” Simms said. “That’s why I see some of these guys, Joe DeCamillis, Rich Bisaccia, special-teams coaches, when I see them getting interviewed I don’t sit there and go, ‘That’s silly.’ I understand now. … You’ve got to make the search broader and there is somebody out there. Can you find him, and more importantly, can your organization give him a chance to get it done?”

For the Lions in their current state, with a veteran nucleus that expects to contend for the playoffs immediately and a young quarterback in Matthew Stafford who needs a firm guiding hand, a veteran coach makes plenty of sense.

Whisenhunt, Caldwell, Munchak and Kubiak all had success in their last jobs but were done in by poor quarterback play or injuries at the position. Whisenhunt and Caldwell even led their teams to the Super Bowl.

And it’s not like “retreads” aren’t winning in the NFL now.

The Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, led by second-time NFL head coaches Pete Carroll and John Fox, respectively, had the best records in the league this year, and two Februarys ago Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants beat Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots in a matchup of future Hall of Famers who were fired from their first jobs as head coach

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But as much as the next hire will shape the Lions’ future, Simms said their success is ultimately in the hands of someone else — Stafford.

“I think about it all the time,” Simms said. “You go outside and get somebody nobody knows about, if it works, you’re a genius, and if it doesn’t they’ll fire you because why were you doing something so silly?

“So I don’t know which way the Lions are going to go. I like Jim Schwartz, I thought the Lions were very close to getting this turned around, but they need somebody in my eyes just to change — I don’t want to say the culture, but it needs to change in Detroit. We just didn’t see that buttoned-up, disciplined team as much as we need to see. And I think Matt Stafford is as talented throwing the football as anybody in the NFL, I really do. But now you have to accept the responsibility that you’re the man. And I think we all know what that means. Take control of the dang football team and make it yours. When you lose it’s your fault, and when you win it’s everybody else that helped you get it done. I think in today’s game, these quarterbacks need to have a great presence on the football team and if they don’t I think it hurts your team and your franchise, and we’ll see if the Lions get that corrected.”